Tools - how they have changed

[Diver Fred]

Today, watching a neighbour loading their vehicle to go to site after reading the thread yesterday about Alarm installers tools, caused me to think about tools I started with.

Started my first apprenticeship as a C&J in the 70's to take up my fathers trade, guess I was lucky in that respect as after the first day I had some tools of my own.

Those tools being :-
16oz claw hammer, 10TPI handsaw, 3ft folding rule, 6” square, No 4 plane, ½ & 1 inch chisels, 8 inch screwdriver, all in a (used) Bass. (the pockets of which contained a few 1&¾ inch 8G screws and 2&1/2 inch 'floor brads'.)

A few weeks later that was supplemented with a brace and ½, ¾ and 1 inch bits, marking gauge, hand drill and 3 twist drills.

6 months later was laid off! I'd not been 'indentured' and so that was quite easy for the employer.

Managed to get another apprenticeship later that year to another trade (GPO telephones) and spent 35 years there but was still occasional C&J jobs with my father. So whilst I'm not a fully trained C&J but understand most C&J jobs. Have helped neighbours out with the odd 2nd fix jobs when asked for neighbours.

In the neighbours truck went :- 1 toolbox of hand tools similar to what I started out with and a few more besides, 2 cordless drills, charger, impact driver, 'skill' saw, track saw, folding workbench, a couple of 'Hop Up's' and a digital camera. Camera is needed to record what is done and I'm told the pictures included with the bill.

Now my dad had a Transit Van but never carried that many tools, he needed a van that size to transport his workshop output to site. Is the use of power tools gaining us anything?

So I guess the question is – have we really gained anything with the power tools available and used today apart from more 'toys'?

Maybe a bit more consistency...? Not so tired?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Now my dad had a Transit Van but never carried that many tools, he needed a van that size to transport his workshop output to site. Is the use of power tools gaining us anything?

So I guess the question is – have we really gained anything with the power tools available and used today apart from more 'toys'?

Grandson is a sort of auto-electrician, involved with fit out of ambulance, fire, police kit, some other specialised vehicle kit. He's somewhere in Scotland at the moment, fitting security systems to a supermarket's trailer units, he says something about the trailer can only be unlocked once it's in the supermarkets own yard - guess it uses GPS, to know that. His go to implement even for a couple of screws is battery powered. I will admit to have three battery drill/drivers, but only them them if I have a quantity of screws to drive and usually into wood. I find them a quite clumsy thing to use on most other things, apart from the weight of them.

 

[Tigercubrider]

My Dad was born with only one "normal" hand - he may have suffered something similar to the guy on the late night satire ch4 programme only just with his hand.
His hand looked a little like a spanner and he could grip something but not tightly.

He was very practical and loved DIY but had a reasonably high level office job not industry based. Our family home was a stretch to buy and needed tons of work.

He sawed down 17 elm trees that would have been close to 3 feet in diameter. By hand with a bow saw and axe.
then he dug the stumps out by hand.
His 'dream" ws a black and decker mains drill. the type that had all sorts of add ons. Almost zero power but he was as pleased as punch.
He spent a weekend up a ladder with a poker that he had to heat in the fire and quench, hammering it into the house wall, 1/4 turn, hit again. All in order to get a hole through to power the garage.
He used an old tree trunk as a whacker, grasping it around the waist and dropping it to the ground.

Proper tools?.... We don't need no "proper tools".

 

[blup]

It's speed and time saving in most cases, but some tools, like multi tools don't really have a single, hand tool, equivalent.

Blup

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

His 'dream" ws a black and decker mains drill. the type that had all sorts of add ons. Almost zero power but he was as pleased as punch.
He spent a weekend up a ladder with a poker that he had to heat in the fire and quench, hammering it into the house wall, 1/4 turn, hit again. All in order to get a hole through to power the garage.

My dad bought the B&D kit, drill was gold and white, it still worked fine after he passed away, but the kit was quite deadly. Before that, he used to use a red hot poker to make holes in wood, followed by a hand cranked breast drill.

 

[opps]

He spent a weekend up a ladder with a poker that he had to heat in the fire and quench, hammering it into the house wall, 1/4 turn, hit again. All in order to get a hole through to power the garage.

I guess that the bricks were fairly soft. I have often wondered if it was even possible to make holes in engineering bricks or concrete prior to SDS.

 

[TeaAndBiscuits]

His 'dream" ws a black and decker mains drill. the type that had all sorts of add ons. Almost zero power but he was as pleased as punch.
.

Sounds familiar... I remember my dad's B&D drill and attachment set, only going back to the 80s here though.

As I recall it came with a jigsaw attachment. You had to unscrew and remove the chuck and replace with with a sort of paddle thing which interfaced a slot on the attachment.

Also had a sanding attachment, again as I recall you had to replace the chuck with a sort of eccentric weight thing.

Both were of course pretty crap.

No shaft lock or anything on the drill so to remove the chuck you would just put the chuck key in and give it a whack with a mallet to shock the thread loose so you could undo it. Bit of a knack to it.

All came in a big case (well, probably not that big but I remember it as a kid being huge)

Quite comical when you think about it from 2022.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I guess that the bricks were fairly soft. I have often wondered if it was even possible to make holes in engineering bricks or concrete prior to SDS.

I made an assumption it must be a timber building. Yes it was possible, pre-SDS...

They used star-drills, like a chisel but with a cross at the end. Hit it with a lump hammer, turn, hit again, rinse and repeat until you got to depth. It was incredibly hard work, just to make a Rawlbolt fixing, compared to now. Before Rawlbolts, they would use forked steel dropped in the hole, which was then filled with molten lead.

Even drilling brick or concrete to make a No 10 hole for a Ralwplug was hard, you would use a Rawldrill with a triangular tip, in a holder, the hit and turn, hit and turn. Then use a fibre Rawlplug. If in brick, it was easier to just make a fixing in a joint. Pre-Ralwplugs, some times instead of, a wood wedge would be cut, then hammered in the hole, to screw the screw into.

 

[jj4091]

Managed to get another apprenticeship later that year to another trade (GPO telephones) and spent 35 years there

I've sill got my trusty pair of 81's from when I worked there almost 50 years ago

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I've sill got my trusty pair of 81's from when I worked there almost 50 years ago

Me too! Did you mean 88's ? And my 50volt iron, still works too.

 

[jj4091]

No, 81's long nosed pliers. It was the only tool I managed to keep when I left. They were a combination pair with wire cutter & stripper built in. I was on exchange construction & we were working with GEC contractors building a new Crossbar exchange & I noticed one of them using these which were far superior to the Brit Telecoms supplied tool & I asked him if I could buy a pair from them. They were a god send when jumpering the old Strowger equipment over to the Crossbar via the main frame.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

No, 81's long nosed pliers. It was the only tool I managed to keep when I left. They were a combination pair with wire cutter & stripper built in.

Yep same things, but I (thought) knew them as 88's or AT8's made by Lindstrom, very fine nose almost tweezer like. I need to have close look at mine to see if there is a number on them.

 

[Diver Fred]

Oh Yes - 81's; a.k.a. 'Yutties'

I guess I was lucky when I moved on, was a COW on exchanges, moved to SysX Data build, to BT Labs then to Radio Engineering where the division I was in was given away so had kept all my tools, (including Strowger kit!) all the way through. Wouldn't get a career like that today in BT.
Glad I have as the amount of repairs I get asked to do for people due to the costs if they have a problem in their houses.

I also have a couple of pairs of Lindstroms - as JJ says very useful when jumping.

 

[jj4091]

Yep same things, but I (thought) knew them as 88's or AT8's made by Lindstrom, very fine nose almost tweezer like. I need to have close look at mine to see if there is a number on them.

The 81's were general purpose long nose pliers definitely not tweezer like, but I don't remember ever seeing anything like that, Perhaps there were 88's as well & I just worked on the rough stuff with no need for refinement.Where I worked you had to be a T.O. or an A.E to be able to see a tool list or order your own tools & I was just a grunt T2A.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The 81's were general purpose long nose pliers definitely not tweezer like, but I don't remember ever seeing anything like that, Perhaps there were 88's as well & I just worked on the rough stuff with no need for refinement.Where I worked you had to be a T.O. or an A.E to be able to see a tool list or order your own tools & I was just a grunt T2A.

OK, that maybe explains it. The (what I call 88's) were used in the exchange for wiring the terminals on the selector racks. Measure, cut, strip, then wrap the wire a couple of times round the terminal, then finally solder when a few were done, with the 50v iron plugged into the rack DC. I always fancied one of those 50v head lights, but never got one. Unnecessary now, with the much smaller battery LED lamps available now.